Crawford leading the way for Hawks

If anyone knew what Corey Crawford was capable of doing, it was Blackhawks assistant coach Mike Haviland.

Haviland coached Crawford in the minors and saw a hard-working kid who improved his game each season while waiting for his shot in the NHL.

“I had him his first three years and you could see every year he got better and better,” Haviland said. “He’s a big kid in there, sound and square. He doesn’t get himself out of position a lot. There’s not a lot of room to shoot on him because he’s a big kid.”

Crawford paid his dues for five years in the minors, waiting patiently as the Hawks went through one goaltender after another in Nikolai Khabibulin, Cristobal Huet and Antti Niemi.

It’s Crawford’s time now, and he is making the most of the chance. His win Monday at St. Louis was his 20th of the season, and he also has a 2.17 goals-against average that ranks third in the league.

Crawford’s win total is even more impressive considering he had only 2 victories through Nov. 19, getting a spot start here and there as Marty Turco’s backup.

Crawford took over the No. 1 position on Nov. 26 and has gone 17-8-3 since then.

“Now he has a ton of confidence, and rightfully so,” Haviland said.

In his own way Crawford is turning into a quiet leader for the Hawks as a guy who is letting his play do the talking.

Crawford has become a go-to guy for the media in the dressing room, and his message never varies when it comes to the confidence he has in himself and the confidence the team has even during some frustrating times of late.

“We’re a confident bunch,” Crawford said. “We just take care of ourselves and know the guy beside us is going to do his job.

“Maybe it drops here and there, but not for a long period of time where we can’t recover from it. These guys know what they can do and are confident in their talent.”

Crawford pulled off a veteran move at St. Louis when he went to the referees at one point in the game and explained how the big Blues’ forwards were crashing his crease every chance they could.

So what happened early in the third period? The Blues had a critical goal waved off that would have cut the Hawks’ lead to 1 goal because B.J. Crombeen was ruled to be in the crease shoving Nick Leddy into Crawford.

“They got around him an awful lot, and I love that he kept his composure even with them bumping him at times,” Haviland said.

“They weren’t giving me a chance to get out and challenge, so I just let the refs know that was their plan to do that,” Crawford said.

It should have come as no surprise that Crawford started again Monday afternoon despite getting the start a day earlier against Pittsburgh.

“He’s done a lot of it in the American (Hockey) League and we knew he could handle it,” Haviland said.

This is Crawford’s team now, and the coaches are going to ride him as much as they can the rest of the way even with six sets of back-to-back games remaining.